Sara Jacobs Introduces Censure Resolution, Calls For Marjorie Taylor Greene To Resign

Speaker 1: 00:01 Uh, San Diego Congresswoman moves to censure Marjorie Taylor. Speaker 2: 00:05 And we saw what happened on January 6th. When we allowed this kind of hate-filled rhetoric to go unanswered, Speaker 1: 00:12 Maureen Kavanaugh with Jade Heinemann. This is KPBS midday edition, Diego County pledges to become carbon neutral. Speaker 3: 00:28 You name it, everything that's consuming carbon. We're looking at, you know, what are, what are the, what are some of the alternatives that, that we should be exploring? Speaker 1: 00:37 San Diego port commission struggles to keep a float during the pandemic and the San Diego history center celebrates black history month that's ahead on midday edition. Speaker 3: 00:47 Okay. Speaker 1: 01:00 Congress has monumental issues before it from COVID relief to immigration reform to combat and climate change. But one of the overriding issues at present is the climate within Congress itself. Members are reportedly angry and wary of each other suspicious of how much some members of Congress may have been complicit with the insurrection of January 6th and some in Congress have refused to comply with new metal detectors installed to search for concealed weapons. Much of the concern is now focused on the newly elected representative from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor green, her past support for Q and on and other conspiracy theories and her support on social media for physical violence against fellow politicians has now led to efforts to expel green from Congress or to censure her. The censure resolution was co-sponsored by San Diego, Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs, who joins us now and welcome Congresswoman Jacobs. Speaker 2: 01:58 Thank you. Great to be here with you. Speaker 1: 02:00 Can you tell us about the censure resolution you've submitted against Congresswoman green? What would it do? Speaker 2: 02:07 So I, uh, submitted this resolution with my colleague Congresswoman Nick Kimo, Williams of Georgia. Uh, and it would formally censure, uh, Marjorie Taylor green and call for her to resign. Censure is, uh, ability that Congress has to, uh, make sure that we are holding our own members accountable. It's one of the highest levels of that, that we can do. And it's only been done against a number of members throughout the history of Congress. Doesn't it? Speaker 1: 02:36 How many practical result of, or to be voted if it were to be approved? Speaker 2: 02:41 So the censure resolution is something that goes into the history books, uh, forevermore. She is a censored member of Congress. We would need additional resolutions to strip her of committee assignments or to expel her. Speaker 1: 02:54 And why did you take that step as one of your very first acts in Congress, as someone who's worked Speaker 2: 03:00 In conflict settings and political violence around the world, I know how important it is to hold accountable. People who are calling for violence. Uh, we saw what can happen when we don't on January 6th and we've seen throughout history. And so I felt like it was incredibly important that we set down this marker of censure, uh, that this is beyond the realm of normal political disagreements. And this is behavior that is frankly unacceptable. Speaker 1: 03:27 No, are the acts, you feel warrant a vote of censure against Marjorie Taylor green. Speaker 2: 03:31 To me the most agregious are her calling for the execution of president Obama of speaker, Pelosi of secretary Clinton when she liked retweeted. And even herself said things that promoted violence against those elected leaders. To me, that is the most agregious of her activities. Although there are a number of things I think that she has done that are beyond the pale Speaker 1: 03:56 Congresswoman Corey Bush, a Democrat from Missouri has just moved her office away from green. She says, it's for her team's safety. Do you think Congresswoman green poses, a physical threat to her colleagues? Speaker 2: 04:09 You know, it's, it's really hard to say she clearly does in the sense that she refuses to wear a mask. I have been in many spaces with her where she refuses to put her mask on, even when we have elderly or immunocompromised fellow colleagues who are in the room with us. And it's clear that she believes in violence as a way to resolve her political disagreements. I think we here in California know what can happen when you have members of a group like this. Like we saw in San Francisco with Harvey milk, who was murdered by a fellow supervisor. And so I think while I don't feel like there's an imminent threat to my life right now from her, it's clear that she does not care about the lives of her colleagues shown by her and her unwillingness to wear a mask, her unwillingness, to go through the metal detectors. And I think it's a perfectly acceptable thing for Congresswoman Bush to decide that it's, that she wants to move her office. Speaker 1: 05:05 What is the atmosphere like in Congress now? Is it tense? Speaker 2: 05:09 There's certainly some tension. Uh, and obviously there's still a lot of security up and around the facility. Although I will say I was at the inauguration and I was sitting with a bipartisan group of members and it was clear that a lot of us are really ready to turn the page and to get back to the work of the American people. I believe we can't do that until we hold people accountable who incited encouraged or committed acts of violence. Um, but there is actually a lot more, excuse me, a lot more comradery and friendship among the members than you would think. And honestly, one of the things that was most exciting after the attack happened, we really saw our other colleagues check in on each other, look after each other, really pulled together in a way that was really heartening to me. Well, in that spirit of bipartisanship, Speaker 1: 05:58 Do you expect to get any Republican support for the effort to send your green? Speaker 4: 06:02 I know there are a number of Republican members who don't agree with her and think that she gets a bad name to their party. And I'm hopeful that when it comes time to it, they will step up and make those positions known and do the right thing. Speaker 1: 06:16 House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy is expected to have a meeting with Marjorie Taylor green this week to see if she should be reprimanded in any way. Do you expect anything to come out of that meeting? Speaker 4: 06:28 I'm hopeful that he will take her off of her committees and will reprimand her. Um, but I got to say, I don't have a lot of faith in, uh, Congressman McCarthy at the moment. Speaker 1: 06:38 When will your censure resolution be up for a vote? Speaker 4: 06:41 Uh, we're not sure. We're still learning the calendar for the upcoming votes it's, uh, introduced today and will likely come up for a vote sometime soon. Speaker 1: 06:51 And would it take a simple majority to pass Speaker 4: 06:54 That's right. Censure only requires a simple majority to pass, uh, to expel Congressman green would require a two thirds majority. And so we feel like there's a really good chance that we can get the censure passed and have that formally on the record. Speaker 1: 07:08 Okay. Then I've been speaking with San Diego, Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs and Congresswoman Jacobs. Thanks a lot. Speaker 5: 07:22 Cutting carbon emissions is one of the tools local communities are hoping to use to make inroads in slowing the effects of climate change. The County board of supervisors voted last week to make San Diego the largest us County to commit to zero carbon emissions by 2035 supervisors, Terra Lawson, reamer, and Nora Vargas spearheaded the effort and supervisor Lawson reamer joins me now with more welcome to the show. Speaker 4: 07:48 Hi, great to be here. So Speaker 5: 07:50 This effort is in response to a petition. Tell me about Speaker 4: 07:53 That. Frankly, climate is the existential crisis that we face in our lifetimes. If we cannot mobilize to take action now on climate, then there will be no future for our children and everything we think about gay and day out in terms of, you know, making sure that our kids have school opportunities. And, um, you know, we're, we're fighting for their futures. All is completely irrelevant if there's not a healthy planet for them to grow up on, if their planet is consumed by floods and wildfires and, um, you know, devastation. So this is a huge issue. It's a huge issue for voters. It's a huge issue for people across San Diego, 1500 people came together to demand that the County take urgent action. Uh, and I'm just really proud to be part of that movement and part of that movement for, for climate action and for climate justice here in San Diego, because the leadership is coming from, from everywhere. I mean, I know it was myself and supervisor Vargas who put the, the board letter forward, but honestly we're only going to make progress this, if we all continue to fight day in and day out, we all continue to demand action. And I'm just, I'm so impressed and so honored to be able to be part of the movement that, uh, people have been building for a long time. Speaker 5: 09:07 The County is teaming up with UCS D to create the zero carbon plan. How will that partnership work? Speaker 4: 09:14 Actually, I use CST is, um, done a lot of work looking at other countries that our federal government, you know, just going back to basics on science and saying, what would it really mean to think outside the box and think about all the things that we need to do to reduce and eliminate our carbon footprint here in San Diego. I mean, the fact is, is for the last 40 years, uh, there's been various conversations about climate, but it's always been about what's the least we can do. What's the least we can get away with just to be barely in compliance with, with state law. And this turns the question on its head. This is what do we need to do? What does the science say? We're? And so you assist is going to be drawing on a team of researchers from across the country. That's looked at these questions in other contexts and able to say, you know, this is what the science says. Speaker 4: 10:03 This is what the evidence says that, uh, we need to do to reduce and eliminate our carbon footprint here in San Diego County. I also want to note that they're going to be working really closely with another team at USD, a group called Epic, who has a lot of local expertise and is going to be looking at how you translate some of these, uh, big, uh, scientific breakthroughs into actual policy initiatives here in our own community. Um, so it's, it's really a partnership that draws on the best of our local leadership, the best of our, our, uh, local expertise, uh, through Epic and through USD, as well as global expertise in global, a global knowledge base that looks at the science and what's possible, and what's necessary from around the world. Speaker 5: 10:42 So tell me what kinds of things exactly will be included in this plan. Speaker 4: 10:47 I mean, I'll be honest. We don't know yet, right? I mean, and I think that's why we really wanted, uh, the researchers at USD and Epic and UCS and the, and the GPS, which is where I used to be on faculty, uh, to take a look and take fresh eyes because our whole goal here is to say nothing is off the table. Everything is on the table. We need to look at anything that might be a possible strategy to reduce and eliminate carbon emissions. So honestly, you know, we are letting them just take, take it over from here to come back with, uh, as many thoughtful and creative suggestions that come from the best evidence-based research from around the world. So we can figure out how to make that happen here in San Diego County, Speaker 5: 11:32 The plan will focus on decreasing emissions from certain sectors. What are some of those sectors? Are we talking transportation, energy, Speaker 4: 11:40 Everything, absolutely transportation vehicles, mile traveled, um, energy looking at how do we make our buildings much more energy efficient, the power sector, uh, water, you know, you name it, everything that's, uh, consuming carbon. We're looking at, you know, what are, what are the, what are some of the alternatives that, that we should be exploring? I also want to note one of the core commitments of this work is that it has to also be about good jobs and growing the San Diego economy. I'm not to, that's baked into what we're looking at doing. That's part of the DNA of this proposal is that we're, we're looking at how good jobs and growing our economy and creating a new green economy goes hand in hand with reducing our carbon footprint. So we're absolutely looking from the outset about how you build the future economy and the green economy in the process of decarbonizing, uh, because the research is pretty clear that there's really extraordinary, um, growth opportunities in this process of moving to a green economy, that we can have good green jobs. We can have jobs that pay a middle-class income that allow folks that to support their families. Uh, and we can do that while building a green future for our children. Speaker 5: 13:01 And tell me the board voted to rehaul its climate action plan a few weeks ago. How does this zero carbon plan fit into the county's climate action plan? Or is it separate? Speaker 4: 13:11 Think about these as two ships moving the same direction, um, but they're not the same ship. So the climate action plan is a legally mandated plan that we have to produce per state law to reduce carbon emissions, mostly in our unincorporated areas. And there's a lot of sort of basic minimums that this plan needs to meet, that it hasn't met so far, which is why we've been sued three times and it keeps getting thrown out because the old board wouldn't take any action on climate. So the climate action plan is looking at a number of pretty diverse range of policy interventions that can happen in the near to medium term to mitigate our carbon emissions in our unincorporated areas. The regional sustainability plan has a much bigger lens instead of looking sort of backwards about how do we reduce carbon that we have already been mandated to produce the regional sustainability plan is how do we restructure our economy from the bottom up so that it's not a carbon-based economy and opens up the box of what all the different sectors and all the different measures are that we should be looking at, not just the narrow ones that are already policy tools in the county's toolkit in the unincorporated areas. Speaker 4: 14:30 Uh, so it asks a much wider set of questions. We certainly need both. We need a much more ambitious climate action plan and we're going to be working and pushing to make that happen. At the same time that we ask the bigger and deeper questions about how do we build a regional sustainability plan that doesn't only look at the townie counties toolkit, but looks at policies that can be pursued in tandem with other jurisdictions, with other cities, um, with waterboards with, uh, the private sector. So the kinds of policies that we're, we're going to need a regional partnerships to make happen. Those are the kinds of things that are going to be on the table with the regional sustainability plan that are not on the table with the climate action. Speaker 5: 15:08 Okay. So what does all this mean to the average resident? What changes will they see as a result? Speaker 4: 15:13 I think it's going to be pretty exciting. Um, I mean, I think the first thing that we will see is just like a much clear focus on how do we improve the ability for people to live close to where they work, uh, spend less time in their cars because cars are obviously a huge contributor to carbon emissions. And if they can't, you know, live that close to work, then how do we ensure that they're not stuck idling in traffic? Because I don't think that traffic is a big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. There's going to be a lot more opportunities for electric vehicles and electrical vehicle charging. Uh, we're definitely looking at energy efficiency and energy efficiency, retrofits, and how can we support businesses and homeowners to move towards greater efficiency. So that'll be a lot of cost savings for homeowners and for businesses, you down the line, once those energy efficiency, retrofits, uh, are able to move forward, you know, looking at more support for solar, more support for wind power. Speaker 4: 16:13 So there's going to be a lot of those changes. I do also think it's important to note that this is the beginning of a journey. You know, that's why it was so incredibly heartening to see, uh, 1500 people sign that petition because this is not going to happen overnight. Right? What we've done now is kind of put the framework together to begin figuring out what these different measures are going to look like and what these different policies are gonna be. But it's going to be at least a year until we get that analysis completed from our friends at, at Epic and USD and UCS D. And they come back with a set of recommendations and analysis. And so it won't really be until after that, that we'll begin to be able to begin, to start to implement some of these policies. And, uh, the other thing I just want to flag for folks, uh, not only is it going to take us a while to, to see those changes, it's definitely a long process. Speaker 4: 17:02 It's also going to take everyone's input. So we're structuring a process. That's really community driven. There's going to be a lot of need for communities to raise their voices, make sure the voices are heard in this process. Uh, UCS D is going to be conducting a lot of stakeholder workshops. The County is going to be conducting a lot of stakeholder workshops. We're going to have an advisory committee on the regional sustainability plan and a lot of space for, for communities have input. So, uh, this is going to be, um, a process over the next year to figure out what this is going to look like. Uh, and it's going to be a process. That's going to ask really ask communities to step forward and participate. Speaker 5: 17:36 I've been speaking with San Diego County supervisor, Terra, Lawson, reamer, supervisor Lawson, reamer. Thank you so much for joining us. Speaker 4: 17:43 Thank you so much. It's really a pleasure to be here. Speaker 5: 17:55 I'm Jade Hindman with Maureen Cavenaugh and you're listening to KPBS midday edition COVID-19 has spread like wildfire inside a jail North of Sacramento that also holds immigrant detainees. Now about half of all, the people locked up there have tested positive for the virus and this story from the California report magazine, K Q E D immigration reporter for Rita, John Viola Romero spoke with one of them. A 20 year old asylum seeker. Who's been fighting to improve conditions inside Speaker 6: 18:28 [inaudible] life was unbearable for him in his home country of El Salvador. He calls me from inside the Yuba County jail to tell me how he wound up there. He says, growing up, he was abused and abandoned by his parents. As a teenager, gangs, beat him and threatened to kill him. If he stayed, he says it would have been like a death sentence, but he had a brother in the U S so he fled El Salvador and made the journey North through Guatemala and Mexico, basically on his own with no money. He was 16 when he crossed the Southern border and ended up at a government shelter for unaccompanied migrant kids that finally released him to his brother in New York, but he was involved in a robbery, stealing a classmate cell phone. And Wanko said, serve time in a juvenile facility. He says he often regrets that mistake, but that he's learned from it and paid for it. After he finished his juvenile sentence, he was sent to a California facility for minors. When he turned 18, I sent him to the Yuba County jail. He says he wants an opportunity to show his changed. Speaker 5: 20:05 Yeah. Speaker 6: 20:05 When COVID first hit, when wholesale was worried, he and others at the jail were vulnerable. He says it was impossible to socially distance and they lacked good medical care. So he put himself out there and became an advocate. He went on three hunger strikes to try to get officials with immigration and customs enforcement and the UBA jail to do more, to protect them. He also became part of a lawsuit to force ice, to release detainees, to allow for more social distancing inside. One of the things that most impresses me about him is that despite the fact that he has just never been able to catch a break in life, and yet he still has this really generous heart, where Speaker 3: 20:48 He wants to help other people. Speaker 6: 20:51 Wells, as Franco says, attorney she's with the San Francisco public defender's immigration unit. She says the lawsuit led to a federal judge in San Francisco ordering the release of more than 50 detainees from Cuba. That didn't prevent a COVID outbreak from hitting the facility. Last month, the judge then ordered weekly testing for detainees and for ice to ensure that staff cleans and disinfects cells before people are moved there, but still more than 120 County inmates and nine ice detainees, including Hong Jose have tested positive Speaker 7: 21:26 You'll know [inaudible] Speaker 6: 21:30 The processes. He had difficulty breathing and was coughing blood guards isolated him in a small concrete cell with no windows. When he first got there, he felt like crying. Speaker 7: 21:43 Yes [inaudible] [inaudible]. Speaker 6: 21:48 The toilet was disgusting. The walls were molded. The bed was covered in dust trash and other people's hair. Speaker 7: 21:59 [inaudible]. Speaker 3: 21:59 And we've heard consistently from every single detainee who has been moved since the order that they have arrived to filthy cells, um, that clearly hadn't even been cleaned, much less disinfected. Speaker 6: 22:11 One Jose says he was kept in that cell alone 22 hours per day. For 12 days, I says, own policy says medical quarantine must be different from punitive segregation, but Kenco says, says he felt he was being punished. Speaker 7: 22:27 Yeah, it has. It [inaudible] Speaker 6: 22:30 So depressed. He says, he thought about killing himself. An ice spokesman says he can't comment because of pending litigation involving the UBA facility. Wanko says lawyer Kelly Wells says immigrants have given up and agreed to be deported after just one month at that UVA jail. But Juan Jose has endured three years there as he pursues asylum because he's afraid of returning to El Salva. Speaker 3: 22:57 For me, what's really crushing about his case is I started representing him when he was just 18 years old and I've watched him grow up in Yuba County jail. Um, and now he's lost so many, um, experiences that you should have as a teenager because he's been stuck in this Bismal jail. Speaker 6: 23:23 But recently I got some good news, a state court granted him special immigrant juvenile status for young immigrants. Who've been abused by a parent and for whom it's not in their best interest to return to their home country, the status is not enough to get them out of detention, but it opens the door for him to apply for a green Speaker 7: 23:43 Card. Speaker 6: 23:47 That chance gives him hope. He says, Plinko said dreams that when he eventually leaves the detention center, he'll go to school work. And one day start a program that supports young undocumented migrants like him on [inaudible] Speaker 1: 24:12 The port of San Diego just endured a brutal financial year. Thanks to the Corona virus pandemic. The agency is charged with managing the land around San Diego Bay KPBS environment. Reporter Eric Anderson recently sat outside next to San Diego Bay and spoke with the chair of the port commission, Michael [inaudible]. He said 2020 was an unprecedented challenge Speaker 8: 24:37 On the one hand, you know, cruise ships, hotels, restaurants, convention based businesses, not a, not a good year for those, uh, for those tenants and for those entities. And to the extent they pay rent to the port, that's been a particularly, uh, challenging part of our book of business. Luckily we're also quite diversified provide a lot of cargo Marine terminals. Dole is still shipping billions of bananas. Uh, every year we're still handling a lot of cargo shipbuilders and ship repairs is still thriving, you know, hundreds of thousands of cars from Asia still coming. And so, you know, we're sort of just navigating all of that. Um, luckily as an organization, we had substantial financial reserves, which we have used this year. I think this is the definition of a rainy day, is it as it relates to public entities. And so we've used that. The big question is, you know, is this summer really the beginning again, of some form of normalcy. Um, that's the optimistic view and maybe the base case, but who the heck knows Speaker 9: 25:53 This financial crunch inhibited your ability to do what you feel is necessary for the port to do for the people of said, Speaker 8: 26:02 So we have a, we have a need to spend money to maintain these, these lands. And we've been able to do that. We have definitely cut a lot of expenses. We've deferred certain capital projects. We've instituted a hiring freeze. Our employees have have given back a pay increases. So there has been sacrificed, but in terms of delivering those services, we've continued. In fact, you know, these, these parks and this open space and access to the waterfront has been particularly important during the pandemic because, you know, that's, that's some safe, outdoor, socially distance activities that we can do is when you think of the year ahead, what do you think of, you know, continue, uh, of the pandemic and continuing on with those services, the port, you know, uh, is responsible for tens of thousands of jobs, you know, cargo and goods that are important for, uh, for, for San Diego and for our region and for the country, frankly. Speaker 8: 27:01 So continuing on all of that is, is number one. Um, number two, we've got some transitions at the port that are happening. We have some new commissioners, we have a new president and CEO. Third, we have a number of projects in the pipeline. Uh, some high-profile projects related to re-imagining Seaport village, Chula Vista, Bay, front product project, and a number of others that are important. Uh, and then for me personally, the initiative this year, that, that I've really identified, I'm going to be working on is, is clean air. Uh, the port obviously engages in a lot of activities that, uh, that affect our environment. And particularly as it relates to diesel truck trips through some Portside communities, Speaker 1: 27:46 If you think about the port today and then think about where the port will be in five years, what transition can we expect? Speaker 8: 27:59 Well, I think for starters, we could be on our way to a fully electrified port, um, and not just in terms of diesel truck traffic, but, you know, that's something that is a possibility within the next decade. And to get there in 10 years, we have to start now charging infrastructure with short power micro grids and dealing with cruise ships and everything else. And so I think you'll see a, an energy in a, in a greenhouse gas emission and diesel emission transformation and the port over the next five to 10 years. Speaker 1: 28:34 Joining me is KPBS environment reporter Eric Anderson and Eric welcome. Speaker 10: 28:40 Thank you, Maureen. You Speaker 1: 28:41 Said the port had endured a brutal financial year and port commissioner, Michael [inaudible] says they've had to dig into their reserves. Do we know how much the port has lost? Speaker 10: 28:53 Well, I took a look at some of their, uh, end of the fiscal year 2020 numbers. And, um, kind of what I came up with was their total revenues were about $184 million. And some change, their total expenses were about $206 million and change. So you can see the difference between those two numbers paints, what the picture is. They, they lost money last year, and that's not surprising because COVID had such a severe impact on a number of sectors that they rely on for revenue. Uh, think about a convention. There was no convention center business in San Diego after February of last year. Uh, the hotels that rely on some of that convention business that are in the Tidelands area right along the Bay. Uh, they did not do as well because those conventions were not in town. And there were other areas too, that the port of San Diego struggled with. There were no cruise ships coming through, uh, after the first couple of months of the year. So all of that revenue, uh, was hit and some of their cargo revenue also took a financial hit as the year wore on Speaker 1: 30:09 How does the port of San Diego's financial health affect the rest of San Diego's economy? Speaker 10: 30:14 Well, in some ways it affects the economy around the Bay. That's really what the port was designed to do when it was first conceived as a public agency, a number of decades ago was designed to manage the tide lands around San Diego Bay. There were five communities that have land that comes up to the Bay and rather than have five, uh, different, uh, viewpoints or different plans, uh, the leaders in the area thought it would make sense to develop the unified port of San Diego, which would manage the tide lands. Um, and it needs money to operate. There are things around the tide lands, uh, that the port of San Diego is responsible for maintaining for protecting, uh, and for, uh, enhancing as well, uh, over the years. Uh, so the money that they pull in from all the different revenue activities that they have along the Bay is money that they draw on to operate the different things that they do around the Bay and also plan for the future. Speaker 1: 31:18 What are some of those things that they do? Speaker 10: 31:21 Uh, some big ones that are coming up, uh, it's going to be the, uh, the redesign and the rethinking of Seaport village. Uh, you might have gone down to Seaport village in the last couple of years and the traffic is not quite where the port wants it to be the foot traffic, the tourism traffic. So they're going to rethink that and redesign that another big project that's been on the drawing boards for a number of years, and it's going to have a big impact on the Bay is the Chula Vista redevelopment project. And then there are some other projects as well in national city to try to enhance some of the public assets that are there along the Bay, and to make that area a little bit more attractive, uh, to not only the people who live in national city, but to people from other parts of the County as well. Speaker 1: 32:06 Did you get the sense that the port has a plan about how to weather another summer where traveling conventions are curtailed? If we don't return to normal, Speaker 10: 32:17 Much of what, uh, I got the sense of was that this was a situation where they know they're going to feel some of those financial constraints in the first part of the year. Uh, but they're hopeful that by the summer, by the end of the summer or the middle of the summer, that things will start to get back to normal. And if the news about the vaccine continues to track it as, as it has, um, then I think that that's a reasonable expectation when things start to get back to normal for the port completely, uh, it might not be in this, this calendar year, uh, but certainly they hope to be moving in that direction. They don't want to continue to lose a large chunk of money, uh, for another entire year. Speaker 5: 33:04 And looking further into the future for a moment. Tell us more about the commitment the port has to improving the environment. Speaker 10: 33:11 Yeah. This is a big thing for the poor they're in the midst of redesigning their master plan. And one of the elements in that master plan, uh, is a statement that is something that's pretty rare for a ports around California anyway, uh, and it's that they want to take a position on environmental justice. They want to make environmental justice a part of what they do when they make business related decisions. They want to make sure that, uh, they're not impacting negatively, the communities that live, uh, near the Bay front. Uh, for example, by, by, you know, driving a lot of trucks through Barrio Logan or national city and increasing the diesel pollution, they want to make sure that they account for that and find a way to work with those communities. Speaker 5: 33:56 I've been speaking with KPBS environment reporter Eric Anderson, Eric, thank you very much. My pleasure. Speaker 11: 34:04 Okay. Speaker 5: 34:07 Several new federal laws will take effect this year, but are intended to reduce the number of veteran suicides. Former service members continue to die by suicide at a higher rate than non-veterans, but some suicide prevention advocates say more help is needed at the local level from Washington. Caitlyn can reports for the American Homefront project, Speaker 12: 34:28 Correct? Kristin Christie is often called a subject matter expert on the issue of suicide for active duty military veterans and their families. It's not by choice. 12 years ago, her husband Don, a Lieutenant Colonel in the air force died by Sue. Speaker 11: 34:42 I had no idea. Suicide was not on my radar whatsoever. Speaker 12: 34:47 Her husband deployed to Iraq in 2004. When he talked to his family about his experience, he focused on the positives meeting dignitaries or USO tours. It wasn't until after his death in 2008, that Christi learned that a major part of his work was repatriating remains of service. Speaker 11: 35:04 He just couldn't verbalize that he was in charge of the human remains. And in April of 2004, his first month there, they had had 94 casualties Speaker 12: 35:14 Death by suicide change, not just her life, but those of their two young sons who both struggled with the loss of their father, her younger son left her a tearful message on his 20th birthday about the whole left in his life. It was used as part of an air force suicide prevention campaign. This all led Christie to become a suicide prevention, not just learning about the signs, which can vary from person to person, but how the ripple effect hits families and friends. She spent much of the last several years working with active duty military and veterans groups near her home in Colorado Springs. Speaker 11: 35:50 I say, we're on an emotional battlefield and how can we arm our veterans, our active duty and their family members with the armor and the weapons that they need to combat whatever they're going through. Speaker 12: 36:09 It's a multi-front battle. When the air force saw a rise in suicide within its ranks, it held a one day stand down to focus on prevention. At the end of last year, Congress passed a legislative package to bolster and expand veterans' mental health care and provide funds for community organizations, helping vets. Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas says these measures will help Speaker 11: 36:31 While this legislation puts in place, the critical care services support that will save veterans lives. It's my hope that the bill will also serve as a signal to our veterans service members and their families that they are never, never alone. Speaker 12: 36:44 Still Duane France argues much more needs to be done to reduce veteran suicide. He's director of veteran services for the family care center in Colorado Springs and an army veteran himself. Speaker 13: 36:56 We need to be able to establish infrastructure both in personnel and in funds at the community level. So we can address it where it's happening rather than trying to establish this blanket, um, overarching solution. So to speak, Speaker 12: 37:11 Picture an inverted pyramid, he says there are lots of resources and people on the federal and even state level who work on suicide prevention, less so at the local level. And that's where France argues the front lines of prevention are his Colorado County loses a veteran once a week to suicide. Speaker 13: 37:29 Uh, not all veterans who died by suicide or experiencing a mental health crisis. It could be financial, it could be relative relational, it could be employment related. Um, and so we really need to be able to have a community response. Speaker 12: 37:44 Well, France appreciates the work Congress is doing he notes. Legislative solutions always lagged behind. It will be a year or more before these bills are fully implemented in several years before we see if they made any difference in Washington DC, I'm Kaitlyn Kim. Speaker 5: 38:00 This story was produced by the American Homefront project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans funding comes from the corporation for public broadcasting. If you are having thoughts of suicide, you can call the national suicide prevention lifeline at +1 800-273-8255 or the San Diego access and crisis line at +1 888-724-7240. Speaker 1: 38:40 This is KPBS mid day edition. I'm Maureen Cavenaugh with Jade Hyman, San Diego history center kicks off an online exhibit and social media campaign today to celebrate black history month KPBS arts and culture reporter Beth Huck, Amando previews celebrate San Diego, black history and heritage with the history center's marketing manager, Shelby Gordon Speaker 14: 39:04 Shelby. Tell me how the center gathered some of these images that are part of this San Diego black history collection. Speaker 15: 39:13 Well, we've had them in our collection and our permanent collection, and we're a 92 year old organization. So over the course of those 92 years errors have left, does items and photographs. And then Mr. Bernard, who was a, uh, black portrait and events photographer here for decades. Um, his son literally brought us negatives and prints from his collection, which is extensive. Speaker 14: 39:45 And in going through some of this material for the exhibition, did you come across anything that is your favorite? Speaker 15: 39:51 Well, I'm a black San Diego. And so a lot of these are snapshots of my life. Um, I was baptized in a pool like this. I know ladies who lunch in that photograph. I had uncles who were in the military and I was a debutante. So I have the debutante photo as well. So a lot of these reflect my memories of being born and raised here and also the culture and the society that I grew up in, in black San Diego, Speaker 14: 40:25 Out of these items. Is there any, that has a particularly interesting history in terms of how you got it or what it represents? Speaker 15: 40:33 Well, I think the Bain art collection certainly is it's legendary to have that scope of photographs, individual portraits, family portraits, events, occasions, and to have that unsolicited being brought to the center and for it to be encompassed into our permanent collection, that's pretty memorable. Speaker 14: 41:00 And for this year, what is the center planning to do for black history month? Speaker 15: 41:05 Well, we had planned to open an exhibition, Nathan Harrison, born and slaved, and died a San Diego legend last year. But due to the virus, we had to postpone that event. And as we started thinking about how like every other, um, arts and culture institution here across the globe, how could we could switch this to a virtual display and make it accessible by people, even though our physical doors were not open. So that's where the celebrate San Diego black history and heritage exhibition really evolved. We've certainly had lots of photography. We had journal articles in our journal of San Diego history. We have oral histories. We continue to get documents and ephemera and momentos donated to us. So in putting it together, however, particularly the timeline, which will be a 24 foot wide timeline in the physical space, but we knew we needed to put that online. Speaker 15: 42:18 And when we did it, we're working with an African-American advisory council and they said, you know what? There are some glaring omissions here. And we said them, what a great idea then to go to the community so that they can insert their memories, their reflections, their milestones, their photographs, their art, to be inserted into our virtual timeline. And then that springboard into will nominate a local hero because so many of us have been influenced by a teacher or a leader or a role model or a mentor who helped us. And in some cases they're acknowledged and in some cases they're not. So we wanted to offer that opportunity to the community, to nominate heroes, not necessarily the ones, um, the black leaders that we see in the news every day, but heroes who are really helped instill values and goals in San Diego of all ages who have then turn around and mentor other generations and who continue to help this community really thrive. Speaker 14: 43:37 This is going to be available online, but are you also doing something on social media as well to share some of this information Speaker 15: 43:45 Starting today, February 1st will be our 28 days of black San Diego history, social media promotion. Every single day, we will be posting. It's usually an element from our virtual timeline, but I also think that we're going to get some really good submissions from the community. And I do want to be able to insert those in as well. So that will be deployed on all our social media platforms. It's very, I don't want to say novel, but it's very aggressive. And I think a lot of people don't necessarily think when they think black history month, they may not think about San Diego black history. And I was asked the question, Shelby, do you really have 28 days? Yes, I really have 28 days plus. Speaker 14: 44:33 So if people have things that they would like to contribute, what's the best way to donate them or to provide them to the center. So Speaker 15: 44:41 You can go to our website, go to the research tab. There's a donated artifact. There you click on that. You complete the form. It comes to the center, our collections team evaluates it. And then they may call you back and ask you some questions and then possibly make arrangements to take possession of it. Speaker 14: 44:58 Okay. And tell us where we are right now. What is this room here? Speaker 15: 45:02 We are in the research archives. We are in beautiful Balbo park. We are below the floor below the exhibition space, and this is sacred ground. There are, um, statues and busts and newspapers and microfiche and negatives and prints. And Natalie's back there printing because we do get quite a few, um, orders from people wanting historic photos, architects, and commercial, interior designers, wanting historic photos to enhance their new spaces. So we're exceptionally busy doing that, even though our physical doors are closed, we continue to facilitate all of those requests. So dynamic space down here, it's one of my favorite places to be in the center. Um, because as a native born I'm down here too, right. In some way. So, um, yes, where we're hopeful that at some point we'll be able to safely, um, open our exhibition space to the public. In the meantime, quite a few of our photographs and our research guides and our research tips and tools are on our website. Speaker 14: 46:30 All right. Well, I want to thank you very much. Thank you. Speaker 1: 46:34 That was Beth Armando Mondo speaking with the San Diego history centers, Shelby Gordon, the virtual timeline gathering. All these materials can be found on the San Diego history center website@sandiegohistory.org.